Meet the not real Volvo V40R

The new XC90 - set to officially debut at Paris next week - proved Volvo has finally rediscovered its mojo, presumably down the back of its Ikea Ektorp sofa.

So now you've nailed the handsome-family-SUV-thing, Volvo, surely it's time for a proper hot hatch? And surely it should look something like this?

This is a completely unofficial V40R, a go-faster version of Volvo's smart, strait-laced Golf rival cooked up by internet renderiser Pluum Graphics. It isn't real, but it makes us want a pumped up Volvo hot hatchback. Rather a lot.

Volvo hasn't produced full strength R models since the 300bhp S60R and V70R bowed out in 2007, but its increasingly punchy Polestar arm shows there's definitely willing within the company to make some properly spicy cars.

We implore Volvo, then, to take a look at this. The Golf R and M135i could do with a more esoteric rival, and we're having fun imagining what might lurk beneath that bonnet.

The V40 already comes with a reasonably fruity 254bhp five-cylinder turbo engine, but the heavily sculptured arches and roof spoiler of this V40R deserve more than reasonably fruity. So how about the 395bhp petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain from the new XC90 being squeezed into that muscular five-door body?

The 297bhp Golf R and 316bhp M135i wouldn't see which way the four-wheel-drive V40R had gone, and the ability to charge it up from the mains would provide the warm glow of wellbeing that Volvos pride themselves on.

That's just us daydreaming, though. As we said, this V40R's not real. But if you'd all like to print out Pluum's illustration on big placards and go marching to your local Volvo dealer, we wouldn't stop you...